A Guru forces his disciple to cut off his right thumb and present it to him as offering (Guru dakshina) and the nation declares the highest civilian award for sports coaching in his name. The 'Dronacharya Award' ought to be renamed for it is steeped in inhuman class distinction.
Ekalavya was a better archer than Arjun but belonged to the tribal class whereas Arjun was royal prince and kshatriya with the divine right as if to learn the higher skills of archery. Dronacharya, thus, prevented the rise of a tribal boy to eminence which could have brought off a social revolution and, today in hindsight, would have sparked off an early rise of the proletariat in ancient India of social strictures. He, by his inhuman injunction, acted, for sure, according to the tide of the times but lost that very day his right to be called the future ideal instructor in the skills of sports. Dronacharya was not, therefore, an ideal Guru and, hence, my suggestion to the Government of India to rename the 'Dronacharya Award' after some other personality who is a truer representative of the ideal preceptor in the disciplines for which the award has been instituted.
In a caste-ridden unequal society as obtains in India today, it is most meet that this change of name be forthwith brought about to render sanity to the whole discussion of a polity where equality of opportunity prevails. Dronacharya had denied equal opportunity of education to Ekalavya which in today's terms is to be considered unconstitutional and even a civil offence even as his forcing the dismemberment of Ekalavya's thumb was a criminal offence for sure. How then can our sports coaches be consistently awarded by the Government of India the 'Dronacharya Award' that evidently smacks of malefic caste and class consciousness utterly inhuman in modern perception? Is this the way ahead to bringing solidarity to the nation by recognising the rights of the forever denied?
Written by Sugata Bose
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